Dear colleagues,

As announced in our previous letter and following the deterioration of the health situation, our 2021 life Annual Congress will be postponed to March 2022.

In order to allow you to have a sufficient number of accreditation points, we have decided to propose at short notice a program of 2 half-days of videoconferences, on Friday 17 December from 14:00-18:00 and Saturday 18 December from 09:00-13:00.

The program will be made up of pre-recorded videoconferences (some of which had to be offered in December during the cancelled life congress), while others will be seminar videoconferences made available by certain colleagues.

In order to cover the costs of this rapid changing to webinars, the registration fee will be 30 euros for one day and 50 euros for the two days.

Please find here the link to the info/registration module of the B-ORL Webinar 2021: REGISTRATION

We are aware that this formula is not ideal, so great was our need to meet our colleagues and welcome our sponsors in person, but we hope that this formula will allow you to wait a little longer before our congresses return to their former format.

Marie-Paule Thill

Thomas Somers

To our great regret, the rapidly changing health conditions do not allow us to see each other again in a safe way and in full compliance with current legal guidelines.

Nevertheless, maintaining our mutual contacts around common discussions and exchanges remains the main concern of the Board of Directors of the Royal Belgian Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery.

 Below you will find the agenda of the upcoming activities planned by our association.

 (1.) DECEMBER 17-18 2021 (ONLINE)

- The presidents of our association are working on a virtual and condensed version of our congress and are doing everything they can to offer you an attractive program so that accreditation points can be awarded (including E&E and Snoring/OSAS) for those of you who need it .

- The registration fee is 30 euros for 1 day and 50 euros for the 2 days. You will shortly receive an email with the invitation to register.

- The registration fee will be refunded in full to members who have already registered for the planned congress. They must then re-register for the online conference. We are sorry to impose this extra step, but we prefer a full and prompt refund.

(2.) 6-7 MARCH 2021 (ANTWERP)

- We are working on a shift from the December meeting to March 6 and 7, 2022.

- May we point out that, in contrast to the previous congresses, there were only rooms available for a Sunday (6.3) and a Monday (7.3). Please keep this in mind in your professional calendar.

- At that time we will try to plan a life conference where we can also let our young ENT colleagues (session dedicated to presentations of assistants), the B-Audio members and their Dutch colleagues have the floor.

The date for the call for presentations by our assistants will therefore be brought forward and a specific email about this will be sent to the training centers at a later date.

As you understand, these dates are subject to change depending on health regulations. You will certainly be kept informed. Know that our Society continues to prefer face-to-face meetings, but that it will adapt to the circumstances in order to be able to offer a scientifically high-quality program to its members.

In this context, the Board of Directors of the Royal Belgian Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, on behalf of all its members, would like to thank once again all those who acted as chairman, secretary, treasurer, speaker, moderator or organizer, always commit to the preparation of these meetings in an efficient and discreet manner.

At the beginning of January you will receive an invitation to pay the 2022 membership fee. May we insist that you pay your contribution on time and all the more so in these troubled times of pandemic?
 
The Board of Directors of the Royal Belgian Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery is aware of the practical difficulties posed by the ever-changing situation and health limitations, but remains convinced of the importance of an association such as the ours to stand together in the face of these human tragedies that confront us every day.
 
Dear colleague, we wish you and your loved ones good health.
 
With collegial greetings,
 
Prof Dr JB Watelet
Managing Director of the Royal Belgian Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Face and Neck Surgery
 
Prof Dr MP Thill
President 2021
 
Prof Dr T Somers
President 2020
 
Dr F Indesteege
President 2022

Dear Colleague, 

Since the COVID epidemic does not allow us to organize a normal physical conference, the Spring Meeting will take place online in the form of a webinar, as in November 2020. 

May I ask you to keep Saturday 6 March free in your diary? The official program will follow in mid-February. Accreditation for this activity will also be applied for at the RIZIV/INAMI. I look forward to meeting you virtually with great enthusiasm and in good health. 

Prof Marie-Paule Thill 

Chairwoman 2021 of the Royal Belgian Association for ORL, Face and Neck Surgery

Letter of the President 2021 in French

Letter of the President 2021 in Dutch

Dear Colleague,

The board of the Belgian Royal ENT-society wishes to thank you as well as the whole ENT-community for the large participation at the first on-line congres. 

For those who want to see the presentations again, these will remain on-line visible during six months via the member site of B-ORL. The prerequisite of course is that you have  paid your annual contribution in order to have a valid login. We take this opportunity to encourage you to settle your membership for the coming year 2021.

The board of the B-ORL-HNS wishes you, after all the 2020- efforts to take care and stay healthy, a very successful, healthy and joyful year 2021.

Thomas Somers

President for the B-ORL-HNS  2020

Dear Colleagues, Dear Friends,

We hope you do fine and remain corona-free.

This pandemic has put our lives and clinical practices under substantial stress. It also has profoundly disturbed the agenda of the Royal Belgian Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery (B-ORL). Both the 'Spring' and 'Annual' congress had to be cancelled; because both meetings coincided with the peak moments of the two Covid-19 waves. We all prefer real 'live' congresses where colleagues can meet, present their work, discuss their research or their clinical experience and exchange ideas. Under the present 'unfortunate evolutionary pressure', caused by the pandemic, we have been forced to adapt and convert the format of a live congress to a 'virtual' meeting, not the least in order to guarantee our mission statement of continuous education.

Please find here below the program of the first on-line congress of B-ORL. The goal is that young colleagues can present their work and that these presentations will alternate with keynote lectures by more experienced colleagues. Two well-balanced sessions have been organized: one on Friday afternoon 20 November and one on Saturday morning 21 November. The meeting has been organized in close collaboration with B-Audio; they have two sessions on Friday (20/11) (morning and afternoon) that can be followed as well by our members. More information on the B-Audio Friday afternoon sessions can be found at www.B-Audio.eu.

No subscription fee will be required to attend the meeting: our treasurer and sponsors generously offer the access to this new educational platform developed in collaboration with the congress organizer Semico.

Please register for our virtual event via the website www.ORL-NKO.be. You then will receive a unique link (log-in) to attend each of the sessions.

We hope you will find this new format practical, useful and above all instructive.

Hopefully we willreturn to a more normal life in the coming months and be allowed to meet again in real congresses next year.

Download the program

Take care and stay healthy,

Sincerely yours,

Thomas Somers President of B-ORL 2020

Dear Colleague,

At the tele-meeting of the Board of Directors of B-ORL on 8 September, it was decided to cancel the in persona form of the Annual Congress that was scheduled for 20 and 21 November 2020 in the Flanders Meeting and Convention Center in Antwerp, in view of the current COVID measures and the major uncertainties surrounding organizing a normal physical conference during the coming autumn period.

Preparation of an alternative digital program is ongoing.

We deeply regret this as this is the most important Belgian ENT meeting of the year where colleagues can present their work and where they can meet before and after the lectures and expand their social network. An interesting program was ready and well-balanced, a program where younger colleagues could exchange ideas with experienced colleagues and foreign guest speakers.

Unfortunately, the COVID epidemic has prevented this, as was the case with the Spring Meeting this year and we assume that this will also be the case with the Spring Meeting of 2021.

The Board of Directors has already decided to ask Semico to refund the Registration Fees for the Spring Meeting of 2020.

It has also been decided that we, together with Prof. Marie-Paule Thill, the chairperson in 2021, will try to present a beautiful and instructive Annual Congress in the fall of 2021.

However, in order to be able to meet the wishes for further training and accreditation and to meet the recognition criteria for assistants, we will, in collaboration with Semico, develop an alternative digital program.

This symposium will take place on the same days as the Annual Congress, namely on Friday 20/11/2020 in the afternoon as well as on Saturday morning 21/11/2020, each time during three hours. We would like to emphasize the lectures that allow our younger colleagues to present their work, alternated with short keynote lectures by domestic and foreign experts. Accreditation for this activity will also be applied for at the RIZIV/INAMI.

The originally chosen theme for the planned autumn symposium was: “ENT practice in the digital age”. So here we are, although forced by Corona, with our “changing times”!

With collegial and best regards,

Thomas Somers